Thursday, February 5, 2015

Ghonhatine

(Not counting driders.We didn’t know fleshwarps were going to be a thing back then.)

(Actually that’s not true, because fleshwarps actually
predate the Pathfinder game; in fact the ghonatine and irnakurse got statted up
the Second Darkness Adventure Path.)

(And crap, we covered the Inner Sea Bestiary’s oronci all the way back in March of 2013.Look, whatever.Chronology is hard.The point is: Hey look, fleshwarps are
in the Bestiary 4!)

Anyway, ghonhatines are fleshwarped troglodytes…but maybe
“warped” isn’t so much the right word as “de-degenerated.”Instead of the frail, disgusting creatures
that are the bane of spelunking adventures, these are monstrous CR 10 hulks
that recall an earlier, more vital age in troglodyte evolution.*

They're still disgusting though, with an even nastier stench
than their troglodyte forebears.They are also perhaps the only creatures in the Bestiaries whose specialty is devouring PCs for extra hit points
and then vomiting up the remains as a
splash weapon that deals acid damage and filth fever.Now that’s adding insult—and disease—to injury.

A baron stands
accused of trafficking with drow—an offense even worse than treason in
civilized realms.He’s covered his
tracks exceedingly well, though, to the point that even divinations do not
reveal his perfidy.Only the most
observant adventurers will notice—or be informed by an escaped kobold slave, if
they have treated the pitiful creature well—that the beasts that guard his
estate at night are not the lizardfolk mercenaries he employs by day, but
ghonhatines—a gift from a drow matron herself.

A drow estate sits on
the tiered shelves of an ancient petrified bracket fungus.The first level is the slave and
servant quarters, and the third level is reserved for the matron and her
family.The darkness-shrouded second level, home to the house artisans,
poisoners, spellcasters, and assassins, actually hangs from the foundation of
the third level courtesy of reverse
gravity.Anyone attempting to
enter the apparent (and very much illusory) second level discovers only a park
filled with dangerous plants and ravenous feral ghonhatines.

Legally, the
government of Andulaine recalled its ambassador after a border dispute with
Montauk.But the ambassador never
arrived in Andulaine to report to the Chief Minister, and someone is clearly
still living in the shuttered and locked embassy in Montauk’s capital.In truth, the ambassador became
enamored with fleshwarping, and by the time of the recall was too altered to
return home.Adventurers who
investigate the embassy will find her wearing the shape of a lamia matriarch,
defended by leashed ghonhatines and tended by crab claw-handed maids who are
only too glad not to be one of the piteous grothluts that moan in the cellar.

—Pathfinder #16
84–85 & Pathfinder Bestiary 4 102

*Though actually according to canon ghonhatines are actually
riddled with disease and dying on the inside; each has a life expectancy of
only two years.See the excellent Pathfinder #16: Endless Night for more
details and an overview of drow fleshwarping in general.

Anytime you see dark elves and reverse gravity in the same sentence, it’s an homage to the shadow
elves’ City of the Stars, which sits on the ceiling of its cavern.

I’m not just saying this to nudge the overworked Paizo folk
who browse this blog.(Though
that’s plenty fun, too.)I’m
saying this because—to me at least—there’s a tension that exists in Golarion
between the singular vision and wild and wooly weirdness of Varisia as depicted
in Rise of the Runelords/Curse of the Crimson Throne and the more general and
multifaceted “Best of All Possible Worlds” setting that Golarion evolved to
become.

Upon close examination this generalization falls apart—early
Varisia was the work of many hands all contributing both home campaign elements
and fresh ideas, and the rest of Golarion has plenty of weirdness to go
around.(Just look at the alien
influence on Osirion and Katapesh, the River Kingdoms in all their variety, or
the decidedly un-twee First World.)

But there’s still something fresh and new and alien and
strange about the Golarion of the first two or three Adventure Paths, a world of
lamias and sin magic and assassin gods, where you’re as likely to run across a
rot, phlegmatic, pyrite, or illusion dragon as you are to encounter a green or
gold.I love the Golarion we have,
but that other Golarion is out there, too, hiding in the shadow of the Irespan
or off the lee shore of the Mordant Spire.When the stars are right and the mists part (and publishing
schedules allow), I want to see more of it.

By the way, please forgive the occasional typos. I am aware of them, but disagreements between MS Word and the Blogger template make my entries nearly impossible to edit once posted. I blame gremlins. You can find a more polished version of this blog over on Tumblr.